


Winter Mornings and Constellations

by Cal14



Series: Mother Of Learning - Short Stories [8]
Category: Mother of Learning - nobody103
Genre: Cuddling & Snuggling, Established Relationship, Fluff, M/M, Post-Loop, Zorian having freckles, Zorian is jealous of his freckles
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-08
Updated: 2020-06-08
Packaged: 2021-03-03 23:41:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,558
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24613960
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cal14/pseuds/Cal14
Summary: Sometimes Zorian wished Zach loved him more than he loved his freckles.
Relationships: Zach Noveda/Zorian Kazinski
Series: Mother Of Learning - Short Stories [8]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1579648
Comments: 2
Kudos: 33





	Winter Mornings and Constellations

Sitting on their bed, covered with a blanket and with Zach draped all over his shoulder, Zorian decided that he wouldn’t be able to get any reading done that morning. The way Zach nuzzled his nose in his neck, seeking warmth, distracted him too much to even finish one page. 

“Zorian,” he whined, “I’m cold.”

“I realized.” Originally, Zorian had hogged the blanket all to himself after returning from his morning shower, but Zach had been quick to sneak inside. At the moment, the blanket covered both of them almost completely, except for a small opening right in front of the left side of his chest. The cold morning air that made its way inside the blanket made him unwilling to leave the bed, even if he really wanted to put a shirt on at this point.

Zach hummed in response as he traced circles with his finger on Zorian’s bare back. The ticklish feeling almost made him shudder, but he managed to repress it, somehow. 

“We should get a heater,” Zach said.

“We should,” Zorian agreed, leaning against the other as they cuddled in bed.

“Has winter _always_ been this cold?” Zach asked him, a small protest in his voice. As if he whined enough he might be able to annoy the weather into changing.

“We’ve been stuck in summer for decades, maybe we’re just not used to it,” Zorian theorized, although he didn’t remember it always snowing this much during winter. 

A cold breeze caressed his face and he felt Zach shiver against him. Then, Zach stuck one of his hands under Zorian’s thigh, which was thankfully covered by his pants. 

“What are you doing?” he asked, raising an eyebrow.

“My hand’s cold. You’re like a furnace.” There was a childish tint to Zach’s voice, and Zorian berated himself for finding it adorable. 

He wanted to protest that Zach’s hand was very cold indeed and that it was like a block of ice against his thigh, sucking away his precious warmth, but the other boy looked at him with those big, sleepy eyes of his and all his protests died in his throat. 

With a sigh, he put his book down and brought a hand to Zach’s face, pressing their lips together as he cursed how disgustingly lovable the other was. Zach smiled against his lips, smugness radiating off of him, much to Zorian’s annoyance. 

As he started to retreat, Zach reached up with the hand that had been on his back and held his head in place a moment longer. Then he broke the kiss, and leaned against Zorian’s collarbone, sighing as he closed his eyes.

“Even your lips are warmer than mine. ‘S not fair.” He burrowed against him, pulling the blanket to cover them better. 

“Don’t fall asleep, now. It’s almost noon,” Zorian warned.

Zach breathed sharply, and- was he sniffing Zorian? 

He was pretty sure Zach was sniffing him.

“Are you sniffing me?” he asked.

“You smell like soap. It’s nice,” Zach defended.

“Well, I just took a shower. Why don’t you try that? It’ll warm you up.” 

“You’re warmer, though.” Then he frowned. “I can’t feel my hand,” he commented as he took out the hand he’d buried underneath Zorian’s thigh.

“Is it warmer?” Zorian asked teasingly with a chuckle.

“I don’t know. I can’t feel it.” He raised an eyebrow at Zorian as he gave him a lopsided smile, “You’ve gotten thicker.” 

Zorian blushed. “What’s that supposed to mean?” 

“It’s a compliment.” Zach laughed quietly and planted a kiss on his jaw. “You’re eating better and working out, I guess we should’ve seen it coming.” He wrapped his arms around Zorian, closing his eyes again and tucking his head below Zorian’s chin. 

They stayed like that for a while, silently enjoying each other’s warmth. 

“What happened to your freckles?” Zach asked, after a while, staring at his neck. Zorian hadn’t even realized he’d opened his eyes again.

“What do you mean?” 

“They’re lighter. I can barely see some,” he frowned. “They’re not disappearing, are they? Do freckles go away with age?” There was a slight fear in his voice Zorian couldn’t help finding hilarious. 

“I don’t know, maybe,” he answered, enjoying Zach’s panicked look with a bit of schadenfreude. “But right now they’re probably like this because it’s winter. They’ll come back in summer, don’t worry.”

“I don’t like this,” Zach whined. “Your freckles are almost gone and it’s really really cold. _Everything_ is wrong with the world today.” Oh, he was _so_ dramatic. Why did he love this dumbass, again?

Zorian rolled his eyes and opened his mouth to answer him, but Zach beat him to it. 

“Wait,” he said, “are the ones on your back faded, too? Let me see.” He pushed away the blanket, exposing Zorian’s skin to the cold air. 

“Hey!” he tried to protest, but was completely ignored.

Zach let out a sad moan as he looked at his back. “They’re even lighter! Where have my beautiful freckles gone?” he lamented. 

“They’re _my_ freckles, Zach,” Zorian reminded him. 

“Yes, but they belong to me. I love them more than you do,” he told him. “I’d fight you for custody, if they weren’t practically gone.” He gave a few small kisses to his back. “I almost want to cry, my freckles...“

“They’ll be back, Zach,” he deadpanned. It’d be ridiculous to be jealous of his own freckles, wouldn’t it? Yes, it would. But he’d still prefer it if Zach didn’t treat him like he was dating his freckles and Zorian just happened to be the guy carrying them. 

Zach whined against his back. “You promise?” 

“I promise. It’s just biology.” 

“Remind me to get a painting of your back done in the summer, then,” he said. “That way I’ll have something to remember them by during winter.”

“You’re ridiculous. And I’m not letting anyone paint my back,” Zorian protested. 

“Why not? They’re like constellations. Amazingly beautiful.” He pressed another kiss to his back, just below his left shoulder. “Just like the rest of you,” he added, like an afterthought. The jerk.

“If I let you do that then you’ll end up dumping me for my freckles. I know you, Zach.” 

Zach laughed behind him. “I can’t promise I wouldn’t do that,” he teased, “but are you sure there's nothing I can do to convince you?” he asked, a seemingly innocent tone dripping from his voice. 

“I’m sure,” Zorian answered in a flat tone. 

Zach sighed as he rested his head against one of his shoulder blades. “I guess there’s no choice, then. I’ll have to get it done while you’re sleeping.”

Zorian turned back abruptly, knocking Zach off his back and making him land on his side on their mattress. “Don’t you dare,” he warned.

“You sleep like a log,” Zach said, grinning at him. 

“You’ll be the one sleeping in a log if you do that.” 

“Alright, alright.” Zach put up his hands in a placating manner, laying down on the bed as if he’d chosen to and not because Zorian had practically thrown him there. His smile told Zorian that he hadn’t given up on his plans, but what could he do, really?

“It’s just freckles, Zach. I can’t understand why you like them so much.” 

“Because they’re lovely,” Zach told him in a bout of inspiration as he sat up again. “They’re small, dark patches of skin covering all of you and they’re so, so adorable,” he sighed. “I heard that they get darker if you stay in the sun. I’m so gonna keep you outside all day during summer.”

“Other people have freckles too and you don’t obsess over them,” Zorian pointed out, purposely ignoring Zach’s silly plans.

“Hmm,” the other boy hummed, snaking his arms around Zorian, “that’s because it’s only yours that are so stunning. You should be thankful to them, they’re like half the reason I fell in love with you.” 

Okay, now he was jealous. “Well, you should’ve fallen in love with me _because_ of me!” he blurted out.

Zach looked at him with wide eyes for a moment, mouth open in awe. Then he gave a small, quiet laugh, which quickly developed into snorting and loudly chuckling, his whole body shaking with laughter. “Are you- Zorian, are you _jealous_ of your _freckles_?”

“Shut up,” Zorian told him. 

“I also love you. You know, besides your freckles,” Zach told him with an annoying smile.

“Shut up,” Zorian repeated.

“I’m sorry, I’ll try to give you more attention in the future. Would hate for you to feel insecure about my love for you.” The bastard kept chuckling at his expense.

“Shut up!” His cheeks felt mortifyingly warm, and he wanted nothing more than to hide his head under his pillow, but Zach was blocking the way.

Then Zach, having finally stopped laughing, cupped his cheek with one hand and kissed his lips. “I love you,” he smiled against him.

Zorian groaned in agreement and dropped his head on Zach’s shoulder.

“I still want a painting of your freckles, though. A real-sized one, so I can kiss it when I miss the tiny stars on your skin,” Zach whispered against his ear.

“Fuck you,” Zorian murmured, snuggling Zach’s neck for warmth before finding a comfortable position to rest his head, drifting off to sleep in the middle of the day.


End file.
